


Second Chance (At A First Impression)

by Mix Stitch (Synph)



Category: DCU - Comicverse
Genre: Alternate Universe - High School, M/M, Smoking
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2012-03-22
Updated: 2012-03-22
Packaged: 2017-11-02 09:03:46
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 3,004
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/367286
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/Synph/pseuds/Mix%20Stitch
Summary: <blockquote class="userstuff">
              <p>The first time they met didn’t count.</p>
            </blockquote>





	Second Chance (At A First Impression)

**Author's Note:**

  * For [cleromancy](https://archiveofourown.org/users/cleromancy/gifts).



> A commission for cleromancy.

“Hey! Hey, kid!”

Tim freezes in his attempts to pull his umbrella out of his bag and glances around the formerly empty bus stop with a guarded look on his face when he hears the low idling of a car engine coming from close by. Gotham Preparatory School’s main parking lot is usually empty this time of the day and with all of the students that take the second round of buses home, there shouldn’t be a single car still on school aside from the janitors. Tim clutches the duffle bag with his camera equipment close and glances around nervously as the rumbles of thunder echo in the humid air.

A car horn goes off when Tim is facing back in the direction of the school and it makes the short and skinny junior jump and nearly lose his hold on all of the things he’s carrying.

“Hey, short stuff,” a loud voice calls as Tim struggles not to drop all of his things that he’s carrying in his hands. “You want a ride home?” The voice (and the slightly beaten up red Mustang that Tim will be envying for _weeks_ ) belongs to one of the older boys in Tim’s year, a junior whose name Tim can’t _quite_ place at the moment as he looks into mirrored black shades and tries not to wind up destroying thousands of dollars’ worth of equipment.

“I’m not supposed to take rides from strangers,” Tim finds himself saying as he hitches his bags up higher and glances up at the sky. If he starts walking now, he might make it half way before he ruins all of his things.

The other teenager grins and pops the trunk of his car. “Are you sure you want to risk getting caught in the storm,” he asks, crooked teeth gleaming in a flash of lightning that brightens the sky. “Come on. I can’t believe you don’t remember me, Tim. We used to have lunch with Stephy every day during our sophomore year.”

Tim blinks, at first still drawing a blank even though the other teenager’s face is familiar.

And then it hits him.

Jason Todd. All around bad-ass and Stephanie Brown’s best-friend-since-birth. How on earth _did_ Tim manage to somehow miss _that_?

“You know she hates it when you call her that,” he breathes, the prospect of getting a ride home from the guy that’s pretty much like his best friend’s big brother making him a little restless and a little prone to rambling. “I didn’t recognize you at first…Must be the new car--” Because Tim would _definitely_ remember seeing such a gorgeous car parked in the school parking lot on a regular basis (especially if Jason had been the one driving it).

Jason grins again and opens his mouth to say something when the roar of thunder suddenly comes closer and the sky starts to smell like rain. “Put your shit in the trunk,” Jason calls out, thumping the top of the car as the sky turns dark gray overhead. “I’m giving you a ride home.”

Tim opens his mouth to say no, looks up at the sky, and then rethinks his position. The bag with his laptop and his textbooks are placed carefully in the wide trunk of Jason’s Mustang and then Tim climbs gingerly into the passenger seat of Jason’s car with his duffle-full of camera stuff balanced in his lap.

“Do you even know where I live,” Tim asks as Jason pulls off from the curb and starts heading in the direction of the school’s main exit just as the rain starts to come down around them.

Jason shrugs. He drives with his left hand mostly and his right hand is constantly moving, fiddling with the radio, with the hula dancer bobble on his dash, and --when it gets close enough-- the strap of Tim’s duffle. “I dunno,” he mumbles, flicking on the windshield wipers as rain speckles the glass. “I’m actually kinda hungry. Do you want to go grab a bite to eat before I take you home?”

“I--” _Really should go home_.

However, Tim’s stomach gurgles loudly in the confines of the car and his face turns as red as Jason’s car. “I’m hungry too,” he confesses as a smile tugs at the corners of his mouth. “What do you want to eat?”

Jason pulls the car into the line of traffic heading into the main part of the city and then taps his fingers on the steering wheel. “If you don’t mind going through a drive-thru, I know this place that has really kickass tacos.”

Tim doesn’t exactly make a face, although he does blink over at Jason. “Tacos?”

“Yeah,” Jason says enthusiastically, grinning at Tim as traffic finally breaks a little and he can pull forward. “Trust me, they’re fucking amazing.” When he receives a nod from his passenger, the older teenager smiles and settles back in the driver’s seat. “Do you have a curfew or something I should be worried about?”

Tim thinks back to his parents. To the people that probably won’t be home in time to see him off to bed. He’s never had a curfew in his _life_ because having a curfew means having parents that notice that they have a kid in the first place.

There must be a bitter expression on Tim’s face because when he looks up from his lap, the other teenager has a knowing expression on his face. He shakes his head when Tim tries to talk and flicks on the left turn signal as he tries to get into one of the faster lanes. “Don’t worry, man,” Jason says in a light tone. “I’ll have you back home before ten. And if your parents notice, I’ll take the slack.”

Tim sighs and offers Jason a tiny smile. “It’s fine,” he admits in a soft voice. “They won’t notice unless I get arrested or something.”

Jason’s smile is wicked and Tim feels a blush burning in his cheeks. “Well, I guess that means that I can’t take you on a wild crime spree, huh?”

“I guess not,” Tim says through a bit of laughter. Jason’s answering smile sees him relaxing against the butter-soft leather upholstery and his fingers clench in the canvas of his duffle before he lets go. “We’ll save it for next time, okay?”

It isn’t exactly the start of a beautiful friendship (considering that they’ve technically known each other for a year at least), but as Tim watches Jason laugh and drive and look so much more at home in his car than in school… He thinks that it’s a pretty great second chance.

* * *

The next time that Jason sees Tim, it’s a week later and he’s sitting in one of the unused back staircases in the library with Rose Wilson and they’re both working their way through a pack of Marlboro cigarettes like they’re old enough to buy them. (Jason almost is, but Rose is barely sixteen and her dad already hates his guts enough.)

Tim is trudging up the stairs with a lunch bag clutched in his arms when he sees them. “Are you two really smoking,” he blurts out, big blue eyes widening as he watches Rose take a long drag on her cigarette and blow the smoke out of her nose. “You’re going to get in trouble.”

Rose raises one white-blonde eyebrow at the younger teenager and tugs down the front of her black tank top in a motion that Jason recognizes as a sign of her nervousness.

“With who,” she drawls, lip curling in a sneer as Tim fidgets in front of them. “You’re not going to rat on us are you?” The blonde girl bares her teeth at Tim and clicks her teeth together in a gesture that is supposed to be threatening. “It’s just smoking, kid. It’s not the end of the frigging world or anything.”

“Quit harassing him, Rose,” Jason snaps, coming to Tim’s defense as the pale teenager frowns and pushes a hand through his messy hair. “Tim’s cool.” He turns his face up at Tim and then  pats the (relatively) clean space on the steps next to him in a clear invitation for Tim to sprawl out beside him. “Come on, short stuff,” he says with a smile that’s supposed to be welcoming. “Have a seat. I promise that Rose won’t bite.”

Rose flips Jason off, but there’s a smile on her face that matches his. “Fine,” she says to Tim, “You can chill with us, but don’t blame me if you get a detention for skipping class too.”

Jason isn’t sure that he’s hearing things right. “ _You_ skipped class,” he asks Tim with a bit of disbelief in his voice. “And how do you know _that_ , Rose?”

Tim speaks up as he drops down on his rear beside Jason and pulls open the bag that he’s been carrying. “We have the same advanced biology class after lunch and today is an experimental lab day.”

“ _Everyone_ skips on the experiment days,” Rose interjects. “It’s practically _law_ around here.”

“You’re talking about the class with Miss Isley right,” Jason asks as though there are other people teaching that level of science in this school. He blinks and then glances over at where Rose is blowing little circles of smoke into the air as though she has nowhere better to be. “Hold on a second, _you’re_ in advanced bio too?”

“What can I say, Jay,” she says with a smirk on her face. “I’m a super genius when it comes to science.” Rose shrugs at Jason’s confused look and then takes one last drag from her cigarette before pulling it away from her mouth. She smashes it out on the side of the steps and then glances over at Jason with her thin eyebrows raised all of the way up. “What?”

Jason holds his hands up in self-defense. “Shit! Don’t look at me like that,” he blurts out. “It’s just… you’re always here with me. I thought you were skipping the same class that I was.”

Tim interjects before Rose can answer Jason. His voice and eyes are wary as his mouth hovers over an obviously homemade wrap. “What class are _you_ skipping?”

“Psychology with Hugo Strange,” Jason says before he puts his own cigarette out. “He’s such a fucking hack. I don’t know who let him work at a high school, but the bastard doesn’t know what the hell he’s doing.” Jason scowls. “He thinks I have fucking _daddy issues_ \--” Jason practically spits the last two words out and he thumps his head back against the wall behind his head. “I just want to drop the class, but apparently it’s a mandatory thing on my career track.”

At Gotham Prep all of the students take a mandatory career aptitude test a few months after starting. The results that they get shape the classes that they take outside of the core ones and Jason has been taking the fast track to being a college professor since day one.

Rose rolls her eyes. “I sat in on one of his classes,” she says, leaning back and stretching her long legs out until the soles of her combat boots are braced against the side of Jason’s leg where there’s a hole in his ratty black jeans just under his left knee. “Once. I think the old guy puts too much faith in Freud’s bullshit. And my daddy issues aren’t any of his damn business.”

Jason… has to agree. Sure he’s got daddy issues a mile long, but that’s between him and the piece of shit currently serving time in Blackgate that his mother is _still_ married to. Hugo Strange can just go get bent. He feels his lips twist in a sneer and the fingers of his right hand curl into a fist as he pictures his father’s face in his mind.

“Um… I can go if you want,” Tim whispers, looking slightly uncomfortable. His wrap is almost completely gone and he keeps frowning and leaning close to Jason as though he wants to do something to comfort the other teenager.

Jason isn’t used to people actually _wanting_ to help him out when he feels like shit. It’s nice.  He reaches out and snags Tim’s wrist as the short teenager makes to get up, loosely encircling the other boy’s bony wrist and holding him still. “Stay and hang out with us,” he coaxes Tim to sit close until their thighs are touching and Tim’s face is a hot shade of red. “It’s cool. Right, Rose?”

Rose grins and reaches for Tim’s lunch bag as though she’s been invited to go into through it. “Sure, Timmy,” she says as his face somehow manages to turn a brighter shade of red. “What do you have to eat in here?”

As Tim opens his mouth to reply to Rose, the sound of high heels clicking on concrete echoes in the stairwell and cuts him off. When the trio looks up, Kate Spencer --assistant principal and scariest person on campus-- is gazing down at them with one perfectly plucked eyebrow raised high as she takes in the sight of the burnt out cigarette butts and Tim almost sitting _on_ Jason’s lap.

“Smoking _and_ skipping class? I shouldn’t have to tell you three that you have detention for three weeks,” she says, low voice almost empty of emotion. Then her gaze zeroes in on Tim and Jason can feel the shorter teenager flinch from that look. “I’m disappointed in you, Mister Drake,” she says in a low voice. “Mister Todd and Miss Wilson are repeat offenders, but you… I thought that _you_ knew better.”

Jason growls as Tim starts to shiver against his side and he squeezes the wrist that he’s still holding in a comforting gesture. “We get it,” he snaps as anger on Tim’s behalf makes him a bit sloppy. “You can go now… We’ll be there in detention later.”

Miss Spencer frowns at the trio sitting at the foot of the stairs, but says nothing else as she heads back upstairs with her back ramrod straight. She’s said what she had to and now that the “troublemakers” have been dealt with, there’s no need for her to hang around and scowl at them.

Tim looks fucking _miserable_ , and Jason feels like shit because it’s totally his fault. “I’m sorry, man,” he says, wrapping one arm around Tim’s narrow shoulders and pulling the other teenager into a loose hug. “It’s my fault.”

“It’s not,” Tim says, leaning into Jason’s body like he’s starving for the touch (and it says a lot that Jason _understands_. That he knows exactly how it feels to cling to every touch you get because they never last). “You know, I’ve never had a detention before.”

Rose laughs, voice husky from all of the smoking she’s been doing behind her father’s back and kicks Tim gently in the shin. “Well now’s as good a time as any to start being a bad guy.”

* * *

“Hey, Tim,” Jason calls out as he watches the other teenager stuff his things into his book bag with a sullen look on his face. Everyone else had bolted the moment that four o’clock came around so it’s just the two of them in that classroom. “Do you want a ride home?”

It’s only the fourth day of their stint in detention, but Tim hasn’t had an easy time of it. Where Jason and Rose are regulars and so are their friends, Tim is the shy kid in the back of the room fiddling around with some little piece of technology or another as everyone else does their level best to make the class monitor scream at them until his face is as red as Jason’s book bag.

Tim’s head jerks up and he blinks owlishly at Jason. “Are you sure?”

“Of course,” Jason says, slinging his own bag over his shoulder and crossing the room so that he can stand at Tim’s side and squeeze the other boy’s shoulder. “Besides, we still have a crime spree to commit,” he drawls, smiling when Tim’s face goes red as he recalls their past conversation. “And it’s the weekend so prepare to be kidnapped until your parents call.”

“Kidnapped?” There’s a smile on Tim’s face to combat the force of that blush and Jason likes it. He really likes seeing Tim when he’s happy.

Jason nudges Tim’s shoulder with his own and grins. “Yeah,” he says, “We’ll swing by your place and pick up some shit for the night. You’re a child of Gotham, short stuff… I’m going to show you all of the places to have fun.”

At first, Jason swears that Tim is going to say no. But then--

Tim nods and leans in against Jason’s side. “It’s a date,” he murmurs, blue eyes glittering with happiness. He doesn’t seem to realize what word’s he’s used at first, but when he does, he starts to apologize. “I-I mean, it’s not a date. Because you didn’t ask me out and--”

“Do you _want_ me to ask you out?” Because Jason has been trying not to flirt too obviously with Tim lest he scare the younger junior away. But if Tim likes him back… “Because this totally could be a date.”

With his face still red, Tim looks up at Jason’s face and offers a small smile. “I-I’d like that, Jason,” he confesses, body still pressed up against the taller teenager’s side even though their height difference is great enough to make the press of their bodies somewhat awkward. “I’d like it a lot.”

Jason laughs and hugs Tim close because _he can_ and then pulls away so that he can beam at his almost-boyfriend. “I guess we’ll have to save the crime spree for another night, huh?”

“Yeah,” Tim agrees, eyes gleaming with muted pleasure. “I don’t commit crimes on the first date.”

“How about the second one,” Jason asks, fishing for god only knows what.

Tim laughs quietly. “We’ll see…”

 


End file.
